As a person of distinctly non-Christian faith, I’d be more than happy to see the ritual invocation dropped from the presidential inaugural entirely. But this is a democracy, and since I’ve been conclusively outvoted on this topic, I’d just like to say that this is a waaaaay better choice than Rick ‘Saddleback’ Warren:

This year is the 50th anniversary of the murder of Evers, who was the NAACP’s Mississippi field secretary at the time of his death. Myrlie Evers-Williams went on to become chairman of the NAACP in the 1990s and spent decades fighting to win a conviction of her late husband’s shooter…

Shaun Casey, a Wesley Theogical Seminary professor who has written about faith and the U.S. presidency (and advised the Obama campaign on faith in 2008), said the president is like Franklin D. Roosevelt and Abraham Lincoln in that “he’s trying to unite the nation in the face of deep division and conflict. They are trying to coax more people into the national discussion . . . and this is the last time the entire nation will pay attention to what this guy says in one sitting.”

Some details of the inaugural ceremony have changed over time, including the move to the west side of the Capitol from the east side. But historians say the role of an unspecific deity has been a prominent constant. Lincoln’s address at his second inauguration is the most explicitly religious in history, Casey said….

Actually 3 things for today different
Its my birthday – big whoop, I had actually forgotten that until I looked at my FB page
I have an appointment with a specialist to see if further surgery will help
The #2 ranked Notre Dump will be getting thrashed by the #1 ranked Univ of Minnesota in in ice hockey this evening so that will be enjoyable.

I like the idea of a spiritual “kumbaya” moment at the inauguration as a way of focusing on the greater good, but I also like the idea of it being non-religious. If you’re going to be inclusive, then by all means include everyone, and that means the non-religious too.

“No,” said his mother, “they tell Jewish jokes.” She shook with fear, her son said.

Henriette Allen was a Tunisian Jew from a family of prominent Sephardic Jews in Tunis. Her father, a wine importer named Felix Lumbroso, was imprisoned by the Nazis.

So she comes to the US, meets and marries college football coach George Allen, a Roman Catholic who does not want his own mother to know he’s married out of his faith.

Hetty lives in wealthy Palos Verde, near Los Angeles, settling into a social circle that makes Jewish jokes.

And raises her children to deny her religious and cultural background. She tells herself it is for their own good. She does not want them to go through what happened to her own father.

When asked during the 2006 Senate campaign about rumors his mother was Jewish,

The senator repeated a formulation he had often used: “My mother’s French-Italian with a little Spanish blood in her. And I was raised as she was, as far as I know, raised as a Christian.”

Allen reacted angrily to the question and told reporters that whatever the truth about his religious background, “I still had a ham sandwich for lunch, and my mother made great pork chops.’’

I am glad that we live in a country that elected Barack Obama over someone like George Allen, once considered a presidential candidate in waiting; that Myrlie Evers will be featured in the second inauguration; and that a young Henriette Lumbroso today might not choose to obfuscate her family background.

I don’t know how you watch that shit, but I admire your ability to do it. I simply can’t if I don’t want to throw my coffee cup through the screen. I just can’t afford a new tv right now.

Love the Myrlie Evers pick, though I think picking the Reverend Al Sharpton would have been better simply for the entertainment factor. Wingnut heads would be exploding all over the place for the next two weeks.

Spending at least a few moments gloating over Notre Dame getting crushed like a grape, just because their “doing it the right way” schtick has become so tiresome. Notre Dame football is a profit-making entity just like every other NCAA Division I football program.

I like that President Obama decided to honor Medger Evers by having his wife deliver the invocation. Medger Evers figured prominently in various aspects of the Civil Rights movement and it is good the President honors this movement.

I’m waiting for the announcement that, as an attempt to “come together” or maybe just “meet halfway” with the right-wingers of the country, President Obama also invites Rev. Fred Phelps to deliver his own, very special invocation. (“Very special” used here in the same sense as “Tonight! ! In a Very Special episode of ‘Full House,’ the Olsen girls do something semi-cute, and Bob Saget reacts with his trademark mixture of befuddlement and psychotic rage!”)

I think it would be good fun. Especially when the President, during his own speech, says something like: “OK, America – you know that crazy shit that Fred Phelps was spouting a few minutes ago? That’s the crap I have to deal with from the Republicans in Congress, every f’ing day. You want America to move back to a place of sanity? Well, then, you know what to do. And, not to give you any hints or anything, but I hear Agway has a special, limited-time sale on pitchforks. Just sayin’.”

I would definitely buy a ton of popcorn to watch that kind of inauguration.

ETA: Of course, assuming Obama isn’t going to do anything along the lines of my suggestion/fantasy, I think Myrlie Evers-Williams is a great choice, and hope she doesn’t have to deal with too much wingnut rage. She’s had more than enough of that shit in her lifetime.

@Schlemizel: Yes, Obama said something along the lines of reaching out to people of all faiths and of no faith last time. By that time, all the wingnuts were so far into their mass nervous breakdown that I have no idea what they said about it specifically other than “rraaarrrghrgh.”

Happy birthday! Hope it is a big whoop by close of business – if nothing else by getting good news on your health.

I forget the movie that was based on Myrlie Evers’ attempts to get justice done for her husband. But I do remember it galvanizing nine- or ten-year-old me to support civil rights. This is an excellent pick.

But remember the President is “No Drama” Obama. When has he ever done anything that might offend the great unwashed? Sure the wingnuts will explode over this pick but they would explode if he had picked the Savior Himself. Most people will ignore the tantrum if they hear about it at all.

And before the whiner patrol hits the thread, that is not a knock on President Obama it is simply observation of his past history. This is not a guy given to intentionally provocative or controversial displays. He is subtle and that has served him well, don’t expect a change in his personality now.

Yeah, that was it! As a person of no faith (unless you count Pastafarianism & most don’t) I very rarely complain about public displays of mock piety, its sort of like the National Anthem before a game, nobody really cares they are just going through the motion because they know it is required. As long as I am not required to join in there is no real harm but it was nice to be included.

Notre Dame got whooped last night. But was that the most disgraceful thing to happen to this year’s football team? Not by a long shot:

As unbeaten Notre Dame prepares to play in tonight’s national championship game against Alabama, the sports media have chosen not to discuss the fact that this football team has two players on its roster suspected of sexual assault and rape; two players whose crimes have been ignored; two players whose accusers felt harassed and intimidated; two players whose presence on the field Monday night should be seen as a national disgrace.

Presented without comment, the abstract for a seminar someone is giving at my work tomorrow:

Using human evaluation of the happiness of words, we analyze a diverse set of large-scale texts which reflect cultural experience including 50 years of music lyrics, millions of weblogs, and billions of status updates from Twitter. We find that happiness rises and falls with age and distance from the Earth’s equator; the 2008 Presidential Election was the happiest day in the blogosphere in the last 5 years; and the written form of the English language exhibits a pro-social bias.
This talk will discuss the findings in the context of our ongoing effort in the Computational Story Lab at UVM to develop a remote sensor of population level happiness: the ‘Hedonometer’.

Given the number of these stories that leak out about successful college teams it should be almost an automatic assumption that there are some number of thieves, thugs and rapists on every roster and that the operate under the protection of the system they profit.

Its sad but the evidence is all around. What about the ‘clean’ programs you say? You mean clean like Penn State? Clean like ND? Yeah, exactly like those.

Seriously, however, I thought No Drama Obama referred to his preternatural calm in the face of turmoil, as opposed to his non-confrontational tone.

In any event, by presidenting while being a black Democrat, everything he does is confrontational. He’s being “in your face” by nominating a conservative Republican to be Sec Def. I mean, c’mon. Can you imagine if he did something really out there? It would cause a rip in the space-time continuum.

@Schlemizel: It does build character. Some of the hardest things we do in life involve cover ups and willful blindness and making easy choices that benefit the status quo. I believe that’s right out of Proverbs 45.

I can’t say his style is wrong, it sure works for him. I also suspect that as a black man in America he had to take this approach or he would never have been elected President.

There are times I wish he would act more like LBJ or even Boy Blunder and do something totally confrontational (fight for single payer or for Warrens and Rices appointments) but that is not his style and it could easily be argued that he gets more done with that than he would get done trying to make me happy.

I pointed this out in a thread about the coin issue & you would have thought I was the worst person on earth by a couple of the reactions I got. If I were a gooper I would heavily bet that the President won’t go the mint a coin option because that is not his style. That is neither a negative or a positive about his performance its just a bet based on past performance. I think that not taking that threat seriously give the goopers some additional advantage but then again I am not in the Oval Office having to make these deals so who cares what I think.

Would that TCM were showing a group of Schlemizel’s movie picks, rather than a birthday showing of 8 Elvis movies back-to-back.

Also it would be nice if Anne Laurie, maybe just once, wouldn’t ask about an agenda, as if everyone formulates and then dutifully lives by following planned lists of pre-selected items or outlines of same. “What’s on the agenda” is not even close to the same as “What’s happening.”

Hope this thread stays active for a while. I am on Cobra insurance right now but that ends in April. Does anyone have any advice about how to go about looking for individual health insurance? I am in Texas (poor me)…

Though it’s only little more than six years ago, sadly I think a “macaca moment” would no longer derail a Republican office-seeker’s campaign. Rather than those facile notions that Obama’s presidency signaled the end of racism in this country, it seems only to have rekindled and emboldened the bigots.

I know I sound like a a troll, but why hasn’t there been a single post about the horrible case of sexual assault in Delhi which has roiled India.
Yes, I did write about it on my blog, but it doesn’t have much of a readership yet. You can click my name to read it, if you are interested. BTW the NYT op-ed piece by an Indian survivor of sexual assault is worth reading as well.

@Schlemizel: Happy Birthday and many happy, rabble rousing, years to come.

Ever consider getting over Rick Warren at the inaugural? It’s been 4 years. Let it go and celebrate the current choice. I’m pleased by the pick, but since he is not entering office and trying to reconcile the warring states of America, I’m not surprised.

Good to learn you have a blog. Are those who prefer canines welcome? (another silly question: why does your BJ “nym” have only one “e”?)

On the Delhi rape matter, as you surely know, foreign news stories absent a direct US connection (e.g, drones, Murdoch) are rarely highlighted on the “front-page” here. It may be a full-service blog, but some things are serviced more often.

As you probably know, the Guardian’s coverage of this case has been comprehensive and insightful. Also, here are two links relating the Delhi case to Western misogyny and sexual violence:

@handsmile: I just read the two articles you highlighted and while I do agree that rape is not endemic to India and the US has its own problems regarding violence against women. The problem in India is much much worse. I have lived in the both US and India and speak from experience. Girl children are not malnourished simply because they are girls, for example. Todd Akin would not have be an outlier in India.